New Speaker Rivas weighs in on psychedelics, housing and health care worker minimum wage – Yahoo News

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RIVAS SAYS YES TO THREE CONTROVERSIAL BILLS

Via Mathew Miranda

Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas supports legalizing psychedelic drugs, raising health care worker minimum wage to $25 and a controversial housing bill opposed by some Assembly Democrats and the San Francisco Giants.

He doled out those opinions, plus more on his leadership plans and priorities for a new era in the California Legislature, at the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday.

The housing bill, introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, passed the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources despite the chairs opposition on Monday. It extends an existing law that allows streamlining of multifamily housing developments in cities that arent meeting state-mandated requirements.

Im excited to support any and all efforts to ensure that well get a good policy across, Rivas said.

Wiener is also pushing for SB 58 to decriminalize psilocybin (magic mushrooms), psilocyn, DMT, mescaline and ibogaine. The bill passed its final policy committee on Tuesday, and now advances to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. This marks the San Francisco Democrats second bid to remove criminal penalties for possession and personal use of certain psychedelics.

Rivas said yes, when asked if California should legalize psychedelics.

As for the proposed minimum wage increase, Rivas paused for 10 seconds before saying I want to be respectful of the process, yes.

NEWSOM STUMPS FOR MENTAL HEALTH BOND ISSUE

Via Maggie Angst...

With budget negotiations in the rearview mirror, Gov. Gavin Newsom is turning his attention to the next priority -- securing legislative and voter approval of his multi-billion-dollar plan to house thousands of mentally ill people across California.

Newsom held a roundtable Wednesday with state and local lawmakers and behavioral health advocates to drum up support for a proposed ballot measure that he says will help the state treat brain health early before we punish it later.

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There is no other issue that impacts more people in more ways on more days than the issue of behavioral health, the issue of mental health, Newsom said during a press briefing afterward.

A pair of bills from Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, and Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, that would enact the governors plans are making their way through the legislature.

Irwins calls for using $4.68 billion in new bond revenue to build 10,000 new mental health treatment beds. Eggmans would reform the states Mental Health Services Act, passed by voters as Proposition 63 nearly 20 years ago and used by counties to fund services for residents with serious mental health issues.

Newsoms vision is to combine the two bills into one ballot measure that would go before voters in March 2024. But first, two-thirds of lawmakers need to vote in support.

OPIOID OVERDOSE PREDICTIONS....FOR 2022

Via Gillian Brassil...

It sounds a bit odd to predict something for a year thats come and gone. But thats what the Centers for Disease Control says about opioid deaths nationwide in 2022. They stayed flat, although California is among the states where cases are still expected to have risen.

The data is predictive to adjust for incomplete reporting. Drug overdose deaths are often initially reported without a cause because they require lengthy investigation

The latest report predicts fewer than 110,000 overdose deaths for the year ending in Feb. 2023, with most caused by illicit synthetic drugs like fentanyl. Still, CDC data predicts that California cases will rise year over year by about 200 cases to roughly 12,200 deaths. It is among the half of states predicted to increase rather than decrease.

Overdose deaths had been rapidly increasing since 2019, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. About 69,000 deaths were suspected for the year ending in Feb. 2019, ballooning to over 110,000 in the year ending in Feb. 2022.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the data shows our nation is finally seeing early indications of success in the overdose rate that we must sustain with even more urgent action.

Tackling the opioid epidemic has been a Biden administration priority. This week, the White House announced a plan to curb the spread of a powerful veterinary tranquilizer, xylazine, that is being combined with illicit fentanyl.

Gov. Gavin Newsom too has made cracking down on fentanyl a priority, launching a partnership between the state and San Francisco to seize illicit drugs and approving $30 million for making its own naloxone from settlements with opioid manufacturers.

Naloxone can reduce or reverse effects of an opioid overdose. If you think someone is having an overdose, the California Department of Public Health recommends the following:

Call 911 and give naloxone.

Keep the person awake and breathing.

Lay the person on their side to prevent choking.

Stay with the person until 911 responders arrive.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The best place for Mexican food in Sacramento? Laurel Rosenhall asked Robert Rivas at the Sacramento Press Club.

(long pause)

Really? Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silvas house he responded.

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New Speaker Rivas weighs in on psychedelics, housing and health care worker minimum wage - Yahoo News